So your website doesn’t show up well in Google, and you’ve hired an SEO firm to help fix that. You’re paying them the big bucks, perhaps thousands a month. But you’ve been paying them for several months now and haven’t yet seen any increase in website traffic or business.
Should you be worried?

Have you heard of keywords and key phrases as it relates to being found on search engines like Google? Keywords and key phrases are what search engine users enter into sites like Google, that businesses and nonprofits want to show up for. Well, a lot has changed over the years, and they don’t play the same role they used to.

For most people, Google+ seems somewhat of a ghost town. And while it’s true that certain communities are definitely active on there, in general it’s nowhere near as active as the other comparable social media sites like Facebook, Twitter, or LinkedIn. But are your Google rankings important to you? Does it matter how high you are in the search results for topics related to your business?

In the early days of search engine optimization, there were lots of companies that used black hat tactics to improve rankings. Unfortunately, there are still some companies using such tactics today as well, although the search engines have gotten smarter and often recognize it.

In the olden days of search engine optimization (or SEO), it was all about keyword meta tags and description meta tags. (And yes, I’ve been around long enough to remember the olden days of SEO.) Meta tags played a huge role in your website’s SEO rankings, but their role has diminished so much that they no longer really impact your ranking at all.

You’re probably familiar with social media—Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and so forth. And you’re probably familiar with the concept of video marketing—using video to talk about your products, services, or other information for the viewer.